FEATURES AT-A-GLANCE

• Wide-ranging suite of sensors including stereo vision and hearing, ultrasonic ranging, light level sensors, infrared cliff sensors, tactile sensors on the body and head, and interceptive sensors such as twin accelerometers, joint position sensors (proprioception), temperature and battery-level sensors.

• Good number of degrees of freedom, many of which (tail wagging and drooping, blinking, ear-rotation, head movements, coloured lights) are well suited for expressive communication.  Fast and stable platform that works well on most smooth surfaces.

• Excellent battery life (up to 8 + hours between charges depending on batteries used). 

• WiFi and Bluetooth interfaces for on-board programming and/or off-board control components.

• 3D robot simulator (Gazebo) for speedy development.

• Multi-processor architecture with useful suite of base behaviours ready-to-go.

• Support for ROS and our own unique brain-based biomimetic control system 3BCS.

• High-level control software stored on u-SD card.

MOVEMENT

The MiRo platform is built around a core of a differential drive base and a three Degrees of Freedom (DoF) (lift, pitch, yaw) neck. Additional DoFs include rotation for each ear, tail droop and wag, and eyelid open/close. All DoFs are equipped with proprioceptive sensors (potentiometers for absolute positions and optical shaft encoders for wheel speed). The platform also has an on-board speaker currently programmed to produce mammal-like vocal sounds.

SENSING

Stereo cameras in the eyes and stereo microphones in the base of the ears are complemented by a sonar range-finder in the nose. In the body, four light level sensors are placed at each corner of the base, two infrared 'cliff' sensors point down from its front face, capacitive sensors are arrayed along the inside of the body shell, and over the top and back of the head (behind the ears), providing sensing of direct human touch. Internal sensors include twin accelerometers, a temperature sensor, and battery voltage monitoring.

CONTROL AND INTERFACES 

MiRo's default control architecture is based on over twenty years of research on animal brains and behaviour and is the first of its kind. However, if you prefer, you can control MiRo directly from your favourite development environment. You can control MiRo remotely through WiFi or Bluetooth and stream data or internal state. If you are a ROS programmer, MiRo can be easily configured as a ROS node.